Youngster to meet First Minister

Herald Reporter

The First Minister has agreed to meet a nine-year old Larbert boy and his family who are calling for her help in accessing a drug to treat his rare condition for a second time.

A petition to get Michael Young, who suffers from muscle-wasting Duchenne muscular dystrophy, has now collected almost 100,000 signatures to get him access to Translarna – the first drug of its kind to treat an underlying cause of his condition.

His family were left devastated last month when regulator, Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), rejected the drug.

Nicola Sturgeon will meet Michael on Wednesday and his family hope to use the meeting as a last resort plea for the First Minister’s urgent intervention to help eligible patients in Scotland receive the drug, which could keep them walking longer.